Niki Talks Blockchain and the Evolution of Influencer Marketing

July 2, 2018

Blockchain and the evolution of influencer marketing is a topic we often discuss. Social media is no longer simply for chatting with friends or sharing holiday snaps. While many use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to stay connected on a personal level, companies are getting socially active for business reasons and seeking out top marketing companies to help monetise their online efforts – and rightly so.

We caught up with Contentworks Business director Niki Nikolaou, a recognised figure in blockchain content marketing to find out the latest.

Contentworks Business Director Niki is a known figure within the marketing blockchain community

Niki: “We’ve worked on a number of blockchain projects over the last 16 or so months covering a vast array of industry verticals. As the Business Director of Contentworks, I can tell you that influencer marketing is big news at the moment with high-profile thought leaders, industry experts, CEOs and celebrities endorsing products to their extensive number of followers. A single tweet or photo upload from a prominent online personality can increase a brand’s popularity ten-fold. And with technological advancements looking to revolutionise the influencer marketing sector, things are about to get a whole lot more exciting.”

The blockchain revolution: What’s going on?

Unless you’ve emigrated to Mars over the past few months, you’ll know that the world has gone a little blockchain bonkers. This innovative technology which is possibly most well-associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, is having a significant effect on the finance and fintech sectors influencing industries such as shipping and banking. It’s also transforming influencer marketing. But before I delve deeper into the details, let’s look at what blockchain is and what it actually does. Here are three main points you need to understand:

Blockchain allows all kinds of digital information to be distributed over a network without it being copied.

All data changes are transparent and all records on consumer blockchains are public and easily verified.

Changes and data updates happen in real-time over very short time intervals.

Blockchain tech is essentially pumping life into old-school companies, making processes easier and allowing organisations to keep close tabs on their supply chain. The distributed or open ledger is a forward-thinking concept that’s being rapidly adopted. But how are blockchain and smart contracts changing the way we sell or market products?

Smart Contracts Allow for Smoother Payments

When it comes to traditional influencer marketing techniques, the payment process can often be long and drawn out. More often than not, the influencer has to wait weeks if not months to receive their funds and professional relationships regularly come under strain. Blockchain smart contracts aim to solve the problem of delayed transfers.

To explain further, influencers are mostly looking to monetise their content and the thought of hanging around waiting for funds is highly unappealing. With smart contracts, transactions can be made in a matter of seconds helping to resolve delays.

What’s more, cryptocurrency payments have virtually no limits and help to resolve other problems such as which fiat currency to make a transaction in. Crypto transaction fees are minimal too and often there’s no fee at all helping to bring down overall business and influencer marketing costs.

Increased Automation for Optimum Results

While influencer marketing can sometimes be in the form of a random tweet or Instagram post from a well-known figurehead – which in turn has positive knock-on effects for a brand – it’s often much more of a complex and long-winded process. The skills of at least one human being are required to implement the influencer marketing plan. Usually, specific software tools are required too. This explains why third-party agencies working as intermediaries between influencers and brands often charge exceptionally high fees.

With marketing tools powered by blockchain tech, however, many of these traditional issues are no longer are problem – largely thanks to automation. Certain protocol eco-systems automate everything from payments to reporting and generate insights without relying on manpower. It makes tracking the effectiveness of individual influencers easier and more precise. Artificial intelligent tools have also been designed to review influencer content and compare it with the brand’s guidelines.

Micro-transactions as Rewards and Incentives

Employees that are valued and incentivised to succeed often perform better in the workplace. I also believe marketing works from the inside out. To successfully launch a product, you need more than internal buy-in, you need your employees to be enthused and involved in your success. The same applies to influencers who are usually required to set up lengthy profiles before they can start to use an influencer market platform and in order benefit from incentives. Thankfully, crypto micro-transactions can be used to incentivise and reward both your employees and key thought leaders who – without acknowledgment and appreciation – may decide to channel their efforts elsewhere.

As well as keeping influencers within an ecosystem, micro-transactions can also be used to reward those reviewing the content which is an essential part of influencer marketing.

Thanks to Blockchain technology, marketers can now put bounties on content reviews and reward community members that get the job done with micro-transactions. It’s these incentives which help the whole process to become much slicker. Influencers can also use cryptocurrency transactions to encourage their social media followers to behave in a certain way. This is essentially a more effective technique than running a traditional giveaway or contest with basic rewards.

So, as you can see the role of blockchain has diversified from crypto trading and is now being used to shape and mold many industries – and revive traditional marketing techniques. Contentworks has extensive experience working with industry thought leaders and understand the ins-and-out of both blockchain and influencer marketing.

Contentworks recently wrote the video script for Pewdiepie – the number one YouTube influencer in the world – promoting an up and coming online gaming platform ICO based on the blockchain.